Spiritual Warfare on Earth

Thank you so much. God bless you all. Last night, if I remember rightly, and my memory is getting a bit overfilled, we dealt with spiritual warfare in the heavenlies. I can't go back over that, but tonight we're going to go further and we're going to deal with spiritual warfare on earth. And primarily, the persons with whom we make warfare on earth are demons or evil spirits. And that's what we're going to talk about in a basic and practical way tonight. But I think it would be appropriate for me to begin with a brief up-to-date personal testimony. In September of last year, I was living with one of my married daughters, my only Arab daughter in the UK, and I went for a medical checkup and was referred to a, what they call in England, a consultant, the top medical rank. And I was diagnosed with cancer of the bladder. This was a very thorough diagnosis with a cystoscopy, an internal inspection. And furthermore, they told me it was a dangerous form of cancer because it was liable to spread to other parts of the body. Well, I was not afraid. I felt somehow that God was in control. And I was living with one of my married daughters, as I said, and she had a friend, the family had a friend, who was a curate. I don't think most Americans know what a curate is. A curate is about the lowest run of the officialdom of the, what do you call it, Anglican church, what you call it here in the Episcopal church. Thank you. Jeff, whom you've just been listening to, is the son of an Episcopal minister. So I turned to him for accurate information. So I was in my daughter's house and we had a phone call from a young man, a curate in the Anglican church, young enough to be my grandson. And he said, I would like to come and pray for you. May I come? So of course I said, yes, you're welcome. He was a little timid. He sat at the opposite end of the living room. And after a while I said to him, now I want you to understand, I'm not necessarily expecting that if you pray for me, I'll instantly be totally healed of cancer. But come and pray anyhow. So he came, I was sitting in a chair, he stood beside me, put his hand on my shoulder and began to pray. And it was like, I can only say, like cats fighting inside my chest. I have never experienced such intense conflict within me. And I let out a loud, prolonged, sustained roar. Not just a shout, it was a roar. And at that moment I knew that I had been delivered from a demon of cancer. Now about six months later, as far as I know, there is no evidence of cancer anywhere in my body. So I want to encourage you, it pays to get delivered from demons. Don't be embarrassed. Don't be fearful. Just accept what God has for you. Now I want to turn to the pattern of the ministry of Jesus in this particular aspect of deliverance from evil spirits. And I want to read from Mark chapter one, a description of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. Beginning at verse 21, Mark 1, 21. Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Now there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit. The Greek says in an unclean spirit. And I want to suggest to you that that man had probably been attending the synagogue like a good religious Jew for many, many, many years. But it says, and he, and if you read it carefully, it's not the man, it's the spirit. He cried out saying, let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Now it's a remarkable fact that the demon in the man immediately knew who Jesus was. It took his disciples about 12 months to discover what the demon already knew. So we're dealing with people with supernatural knowledge. But Jesus rebuked him saying, be quiet. The Greek says, be muzzled and come out of him. Now Jesus was not speaking to the man. He was speaking to the demon in the man. It's very important to see that. There comes a point when we don't deal with people, we deal with the demons in people, whether they're in us or in other people. And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. You see, you have two persons. He, the demon, came out of him, the man. So there was more than one person there. There was the man and there was the person of the demon or the evil spirit in the man. And Jesus did not deal with the man. He dealt with the demon in the man. And he was not embarrassed. Now that kind of behavior took place in some churches, including Pentecostal churches. You know what they'd do? They'd lead the man out and put him in the basement and let one of the deacons take care of him. And I'm not theorizing, I've seen that happen. Thank God we don't have to take the man out of the church, we have to take the demon out of the man and let the man stay in the church. Dennis says, they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves, saying, what is this, a new doctrine who with authority commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him? And immediately his fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee. I want to point out to you that Jesus was not first acknowledged as the son of God or the Messiah. What first attracted people to him was he had power to deal with demons. And that caused his reputation to go all around that whole area. And then we read a little further on in verse 32 to 34. Now an evening when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon possessed. Now demon possessed is a bad translation and I'm really upset with the NIV which in many ways has modernized English that they've gone back to this old fashioned religious language, demon possessed. And I'll tell you why I object to it because the word possessed suggests ownership. If you're demon possessed, then you're owned by a demon. Now I don't believe that any born again, sincere Christian can be owned by a demon. I do not believe any sincere born again Christian can be demon possessed. But the Greek word that's used can easily be and should be translated demonized. And I do believe that many born again Christians are still demonized. That is there are areas in their personality where the Holy Spirit is not yet in complete control. There's a demon that has to be dealt with. And Jesus did it. They brought him all who were sick and those who were demonized. And notice they didn't really come for deliverance, they came for healing. But in receiving healing, many of them needed deliverance from demons. And then it goes on, when he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he did not allow the demons to speak or to say that they knew him. You see, the demons all knew who Jesus was. And he cast out many demons. How many of you have cast out many demons? I don't ask for a demonstration, I just want to, how far are we up to the standard of Jesus? How far are we below the standard and the pattern of Jesus? You say, well, they were not Christians. That's true, they were Jews. But actually they were living basically by the law of Moses. And in most cases, they were living much more righteous lives than most of the people in the United States today. The penalty for adultery was death. If that penalty were imposed on the American population today, we'd lose about a quarter of our people immediately. Is that right? I'm not exaggerating, am I? So don't say, well, those were people that didn't know righteousness. Many people say, well, I'm sure there are people who need to be delivered from demons, but they're in prisons or they're in lunatic asylums. That's not true. Demons actually can be very comfortable in many churches. And then we go on in Mark chapter one, verse 39. And he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee and casting out demons. He did two things. He preached and he cast out demons. He didn't just preach. He preached and he dealt with the people's problems. Now, when God brought me into this ministry for quite a while, for two or three years at least, I was doing exactly that all around America. I was preaching and casting out demons. And I was not embarrassed because I can't improve on Jesus. The best I can do is to do as much as he did. So I want you to understand, this is a regular part of the Christian ministry. It's a regular part of the ministry of Jesus. It's not something extreme or fanatical. It's just doing what Jesus did the way he did it. Let's look for also in Luke 13 for a moment, verses 31 and 32. On that very day, some Pharisees came to Jesus saying, get out and depart from here for Herod wants to kill you. And he, Jesus said to them, go tell that fox, that's Herod. He was not really too polite in some respects. Go tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow. And the third day I shall be perfected. In other words, Jesus said all through my earthly ministry, I'm going to do two things. I'm going to cast out demons and I'm gonna heal the sick. He started that way, he continued that way and he concluded that way. That is the pattern of the earthly ministry of Jesus. I personally have no ambition to improve on it. If I can do even a small part of what he did, I'll be satisfied. Now, there's a very important significance about this particular ministry of casting out demons. If you read the Old Testament, I think you'll find that almost all the miracles that were performed in the new were performed in the old. They raised the dead, they healed the sick, they fed multitudes. But there's one thing they never did. They never cast out demons. You cannot find an example of it anywhere in the Old Testament. And in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 28, Jesus said, and if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. So his casting out of demons was a distinctive sign that the kingdom of God had come. It was a miracle that was not performed as far as we know in the Old Testament. It's a distinctive declaration. The kingdom of God has come. And really, the casting out of demons is war between two kingdoms. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of Satan. And Jesus demonstrated the victory of the kingdom of God by casting out demons. Now, let's read the instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples. In Matthew chapter 10, verses seven and eight. We can't go into the background, we don't have time. But he said this, as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. So Jesus said, you've got to do four things. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. That was part of their total ministry. Everywhere they went. Now you say, brother Prince, have you seen the dead raised? The answer is yes, I have. In East Africa, when I was principal of a college for training African teachers, two of my students died and were raised from the dead. And they each gave a very interesting testimony of what happened to their spirit when it was out of their body and what happened when the spirit returned to their body. I just say that because some people say, well, people don't raise the dead. The answer is, people do raise the dead. They don't raise all the dead, but they raise the dead when it's God's purpose that the dead should be raised. All right, so let's take those instructions once more. Verses seven and eight. As you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. However, it is not enough to preach. You have to demonstrate the validity of what you're preaching. So Jesus says, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Four things, one of them is casting out demons. And then in Mark 16, at the end of the gospel record, Jesus gave final instructions after his resurrection to all who were to go out and preach the gospel. Mark 16, beginning at verse 15. He said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow or accompany those who have believed. In my name, they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. Let's stop there. How many have heard about speaking with new tongues? Everybody here. It's a very popular subject. But how many have heard about casting out demons? How many have seen it practiced? Praise God, you're a rather exceptional congregation. But I wonder when the first supernatural sign was not speaking with tongues, was casting out demons. See, we have kind of gaps in our theology and our practice. We do some of the things and not others. But the way Jesus told us to do it is the right way. Now let's consider how they obeyed. During the earthly ministry of Jesus, in Luke chapter 10, verses 17 through 20, he had sent out 70 or 72 to prepare the way before him. Then they returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. That was the thing that excited them most. You see, that was the new thing. Healing was not new. Miraculous provision was not new. But to have authority over demons in the name of Jesus, that was exciting. And Jesus said to them, behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. I want to emphasize that here tonight because we're going to go into action later on. Nothing shall by any means hurt you. Do not get frightened. Demons have no power against a true believer who understands his faith. And then one of the most interesting examples is in Acts chapter eight. How many of you know that there's only one person in the New Testament who is actually called an evangelist? You know that? You know who he is? Philip, that's right, he's the only person who is actually designated an evangelist. And his ministry is described in Acts chapter eight. Therefore, you can say his ministry is the pattern ministry of the evangelist. And it says in Acts eight, verse five, then Philip went down to a city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. I'm so glad he didn't have concrete theology. He preached Christ. An evangelist's message is very simple. In Samaria, he preached Christ. When he met the eunuch later on the road to Gaza, he preached Jesus. That's an evangelist's message, Christ, Jesus. And the multitudes with one accord, he did the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. Now, Philip didn't have a committee. He didn't have a sponsoring church. He didn't have an auditorium. He didn't have a trained choir. I mean, all those things are good, but they're not essential. What's essential is preach the gospel with signs following. And you will always get a crowd. You don't have to invest in all the expense of an auditorium or a choir or all that. I had a young friend, an African friend in East Africa who was an evangelist. And he said, Brother Prince, there's no problem about getting a crowd in Africa. He said, I walk into a village and ask how many sick people are in the village. They bring them, I praise them, they're healed, and I get my crowd. He said, I don't have to do anything more. That is New Testament evangelism. I'm not criticizing other ways of doing it, but they're more elaborate and they're more expensive. All right, we're going on then. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ or the Messiah to them. And the multitudes, with one accord, he did the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. What attracted the crowd? In one word, miracles, that's right. Miracles are not optional. They're not accessories. They're an essential part of the ministry of evangelism. I emphasize again, there's only one person actually titled an evangelist in the whole New Testament. It's Philip. If he isn't a pattern, we don't have a pattern. Now what kind of miracles happen? Unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many who were, it says possessed, but that's wrong, who were demonized. And many who were paralyzed and lame were healed and there was great joy in that city. So that is the ministry of the evangelist. It's to preach Christ, the Messiah, it's to preach Jesus, a message attested by supernatural signs, healing the sick, casting out demons, and you'll get your crowd. It never fails. You may get opposition too, but that's part of the whole package deal. But I want you to notice that they did not maintain an atmosphere of solemn dignity in their meetings. I grew up in the Anglican church and there are many things I respect in the Anglican church, but you kind of tiptoed into church. You sat down quietly, you didn't raise your voice. Nobody did anything very unusual. It was all very sedate and nicely ordered. And all those people that came in in their nice Sunday costumes, they said these beautiful words. I mean, the Anglican prayer book has got some of the most beautiful spiritual words. But as a boy watching them and listening to what they said, as they walked out of church, I asked myself, did they really believe what they were saying? I couldn't answer the question. I remember thinking to myself, you know, this dignified lady here, if she dropped her lace handkerchief and I ran after her and picked it up, she'd be more excited about getting her handkerchief back than she was about all the things she said in the liturgy. So I just wanted to find out there's dignity and dignity. There's religious dignity, which is often a cover-up for demons. I mean, I was in a meeting, and this grieves me tremendously, I was in a meeting of a very well-known American evangelist and I gave you her name, everybody would know her. She was, to some extent, a little while a friend of mine. But in one of her meetings, a black woman began to demonstrate very clearly demon activity. And you know what they did? Two men came, caught her by the arms and carried her out. That's all they did. That's a tragedy. She desperately needed the ministry of the evangelist. But she, the evangelist, was afraid it would upset her reputation. People wouldn't come to her meetings. I think she was wrong. I think more people would have come, actually. I respect her, she's with the Lord now, but it always remained in my memory, this desperate black woman crying out for help, couldn't contain herself, and was dumped. That's all they did with her. They just put her out. When I dealt with a demon in one woman in a church, one of the church ladies came up to me, said, Brother Prince, you know what they've done in most churches? They would have said, our sister needs help. Well, one of the deacons take her down to the basement. That's not the biblical solution. She needs help, but not in the basement. Now, I wanted to just give you a brief description of what demons are as I understand it. My understanding is limited, but I'll give you the best I have. I think the best thing to say is that they are persons without bodies. Demons have real personality. They have distinctive personalities. One demon is not exactly like another. I remember something so vivid. I was dealing with a man. His wife had come to me and said, Brother Prince, my husband needs deliverance, and I made a mistake. I prayed for him on the basis of what his wife asked. You see, I'll never have done that again. If he needs deliverance, let him tell me he needs deliverance. When I started to pray for the man, and he started to get violent, and his wife drew me aside and said, Brother Prince, at home he throws chairs at me. So I said, well, why didn't you tell me that before we started? Anyhow, the demons were speaking out on the man, and one of them said, I'm unclean. And I thought, now, I don't want to embarrass the man in front of his wife. I could think of all sorts of unclean things that might be the problem. But I said, you spirit of unclean thoughts, come out of the man. He said, that's not my name. I said, come out anyhow. He said, that's not my name. I mean, you can't easily understand how much of an individual a demon is. It wanted to be recognized by the right name. Well, eventually, it came out, but the last thing it said before it came out was, that's not my name. I'm trying to impress upon you the fact we're dealing with real persons with characteristic attributes. I've already pointed out, and I'll say again, two things. First of all, the word is not devil. The word devil comes from the Greek word diabolos, which means a slanderer, and is a title of Satan himself. The things we are dealing with are daemonions, demons, and they are not devils. They are another kind of being. Where do they come from? Well, I don't believe anybody has an absolutely authoritative answer. In my thinking, the most probable explanation is they are disembodied spirits of a pre-Adamic race that perished under the judgment of God between Genesis 1.1 and Genesis 1.2. I'm glad to discover that our pastor more or less thinks the same. Am I right? Good, thank you. That's encouraging. I mean, we may be wrong, but that's the best that I can come up with. But the most distinctive fact about demons is they desperately crave to occupy a body. They are not satisfied until they get inside a body. Preferably, they would occupy the body of a man or a woman. But rather than be disembodied, they would rather go into the body of pigs. Because you remember, the man of Gadara, the demon said, send us into the pigs. We don't want to be disembodied. What they didn't realize was that going into the pigs would cause the death of the pigs, and they were left after that with the same problem again. But what I'm trying to deal with is you're dealing with a person who hasn't got a body and desperately craves to be in a body because, as I believe, only through a body can they exercise their ungodly lusts. If it's a demon of alcohol, it has to have a human throat through which to consume. If it's a demon of sexual immorality, it has to have sexual organs through which it can operate. If it's a demon of hatred, it has to have emotions that it can play upon to work through. In other words, we are surrounded by an invisible host of persons without bodies, desperately craving to occupy bodies, and desperately struggling not to be out of bodies. Now, I think I need to say a little bit briefly how I became involved. I did not volunteer for this ministry. I was conscripted. First of all, when I became a pastor of a very small Pentecostal congregation in West London in the early 1950s, I had a serious ongoing problem with depression. I know none of you have ever struggled with depression, but be patient with me, I did. And it threatened to destroy my ministry because I had this continual sense, I'm a failure, I won't succeed, I can't do it. And I struggled and struggled. I did not know the answer, but I was directed to a passage in Isaiah, chapter 61. What I thank God for is I always had the Bible, and I always turned to the Bible, and I always accepted the Bible as authoritative and final. That has protected me and preserved me through many different problems and situations. But it's this famous passage which Jesus quoted in the synagogue in Nazareth, Isaiah, chapter 61. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to reach good tidings for the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And as I was reading that passage, God showed me that's your problem. It's a spirit of heaviness, a spirit of grief, an unhappy spirit. And let me tell you, the protection is a garment of praise. When you wear a garment of praise, that spirit cannot have access to you. But I had grown up, I can't go into all my background, but I have exposed myself in many ways to demons. And there was this spirit of heaviness. Then God brought to me the passage in Joel, chapter two, verse 32, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. And so in my desperation, all alone, I called on the name of the Lord. I said, Lord, deliver me from this spirit of heaviness. And something stirred inside me, in my chest. I let out a kind of mixture of a sob and a groan. And I felt something like a dark cloud lifting from me. And I realized I had been delivered from a spirit of heaviness, or a spirit of mourning, or a spirit of grief. But that didn't immediately plunge me into the public ministry. It was later on, when I was in Seattle, Washington, pastoring another small Pentecostal church. And I was involved a lot with the full gospel businessmen. One day, a Baptist pastor phoned me. And he said, Brother Prince, I have a woman in my congregation who needs deliverance from demons. Well, I wasn't used to Baptist pastors saying things like that. But what he said after that was still more astonishing. He said, God has shown me that you and your wife are to be the instruments of her deliverance. Well, I don't let people's revelation dictate to me. So I sent a quick telegram up to heaven. What about it? And I got the answer, well, this is from me. So I said, all right. I made an appointment, bring the woman, and we'll do our best. Well, we chose a Saturday morning. And at that time, I'd just become friends with a Presbyterian couple who had just been baptized in the Holy Spirit. And while we were waiting for the Baptist lady to come, the Presbyterian couple turned up. So we said, well, you might as well stay. We don't know what's going to happen, but it could be exciting. Well, along comes the Baptist pastor with this lady who had been the secretary of the church at one time. She was aged about 35, I would say. She was a perfectly normal American housewife. I scanned her from every angle. I couldn't see anything strange about her. No metallic tone in her voice, no fire in her eyes, just a normal Baptist, good Baptist. But the pastor was convinced. So he sat her down in the chair and he said, now, she's already been delivered from a demon of nicotine. I thought she has, but he said there are others. So he stood in front of her and started to shout at the demons. Well, I learned by experience later that you don't get any more power by shouting. Demons are not deaf. Even spirits of deafness are not deaf. You don't need to shout and it's wasting energy. Anyhow, he stood there and shouted at this demon, I command you to come out, and nothing seemed to happen. Then he said, in the name of Jesus, I command you to come out, and the woman's face changed. A different expression came over her face. Well, he stood there quite a long while and didn't get any further. So he stepped back and I thought, well, if he can do it, I can do it. So I stood in front of the woman and I had all the theology. I said, now, you spirit that's in this woman, I'm speaking to you and not to the woman. What is your name? And it wouldn't answer. So I said, I command you in the name of Jesus to answer. What is your name? And we went on like this for a while and suddenly it answered. But before it answered, she changed. She crossed her hands over her throat and started to throttle herself. And I had this stage. And suddenly, the demon responded, my name is hate. And when it said hate, every feature of the woman's face registered the most unutterable hatred. I'd never seen such pure hatred in anybody's eyes. So I said, you demon of hate, come out of this woman. And this gruff, masculine voice answered out of the woman, I'm not coming out. This is my house, I've lived here 35 years and I'm not coming out. Well, I checked everything with the Bible mentally. I thought, that's right. Jesus said, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it goes through dry places seeking rest. Then it says, I will return to my house from which I went out. So that's scriptural. So I beat it down with the name of Jesus and with scripture. And suddenly, it came out with a loud, prolonged roar. And as it came out, the woman slumped forward, relaxed, and this tension in me subsided. I knew it had gone. But the demon had said, before it came out, even if I come out, my brothers are here and they'll kill her. So I knew there was more than one demon. So anyhow, we went through this. It must have lasted two or three hours. And about seven or eight different spirits came out. One that really impressed me was self-pity. And I began to understand some of the ways people respond that are not natural. The last spirit that came out was a spirit of death. And again, I checked, I thought, is this scriptural? I thought death is a physical condition. But then I remembered in Revelation chapter six, there was a rider on a horse whose name was death. So death can be a person. Well, when the spirit of death came out, this woman was stretched out on her back on the floor, absolutely limp, her face was totally pale, there was no color, her skin was cold. If you had come in and looked at her, you would have said there's a dead person on the floor. Well, she lay there for about 10 minutes and put her arms up in the air and started to speak in tongues. Now, one of the things the demons had said, I had said, how did you come into this woman? And it said, that is death. I said, when did you come into this woman? It said three and a half years ago, when she nearly died on the operating table. So I stored all this up. Well, then the woman was apparently delivered. So I delivered her back to the Baptist pastor and he drove her off. About halfway through the week, the woman phoned Lydia and me and said, I think they're trying to come back. Can you come and help me? So we drove out to the home, talked with the woman. I diagnosed that it was fear, that she was afraid they would come back and this was opening the door. But while we were there, she had a little daughter of six, who was a shy, thin, rather unhappy looking little girl. And everywhere we walked, she walked with us. But every time I looked at her, she averted her eyes. She would not look me in the eyes. So I said to the mother, you know, I think your daughter has some of the same problems you have. She said, will you pray for her? I said, by all means. So the next Saturday morning, we had the daughter there. And basically, we went through much of the same with the daughter as with the mother. Most of the same spirits that were in the mother came out of the daughter. Not all of them, but hate was one and death was one. And when the death came out of the little girl, she was stretched flat on her back on the floor, looking like a dead person. So I checked on them for about two years. Apparently, they remained free. The little girl had been graded retarded. She became a normal, happy, healthy little girl. Well then, gradually, by stages, the Lord launched me into a ministry of mass deliverance. And I've conducted ministries of that kind in Russia, in Kazakhstan, in Turkey, in New Zealand, in Australia, in at least a dozen nations. And I discovered that you can do it en masse. I'm not saying it's the best way, but when the needs are so desperate, you have to do what you can. And I've learned to instruct people, help them to identify their problem, show them how to be delivered, and pray for them they will be delivered. And I'm willing to do that here tonight, later on, if by any chance any of you should happen to need it. Now, I want to answer some of the common questions. How do they come in? And my answer is, usually through a moment or a place of weakness. The devil searches for the weak moment, for the weak place to come in. That's exactly how you were describing the man that had the viper that came there, wasn't it? Yeah. That's vivid, I can't go into it, anyhow. Now, what are the moments or places of weakness? This is not an exhaustive list, but it'll give you some understanding. First of all, prenatal. Many infants are born with a demon in them. And it happens because of something that the mother did or didn't do. And the greatest single problem that exposes children to demons, unborn children, is involvement in the occult. And I want to say, you cannot get involved in the occult in any form without being exposed to demons. There was a proverb that used to say, he who saps with the devil needs a spoon with a long handle. I want to tell you, there is no spoon made with a handle long enough to make it safe to sap with the devil. And I want to read from Deuteronomy chapter 18 in the NIV because the language is more up to date. This is what God says about the occult. That is, involvement with any kind of spirits that aren't spirits from God. It's written to Israel before they entered the land. Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse nine. When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire. So the first kind of person is those who actually make their own children living sacrifices, presenting them in a furnace to the God moment. And I want you to understand, it's very important, all the other practices that follow are in the same category with offering your infant as a sacrifice to the moment. God doesn't put any distinction. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery. You know what divination is? Fortune telling. It's trying to discern something supernaturally by a spirit that is not from God. Every fortune teller is a diviner. If you've ever been to a fortune teller, you've been exposed to a spirit of divination. I remember dealing with a woman who needed deliverance from the spirit of divination. She said, I can't understand how it ever came into me, but I discovered that in the newspaper she regularly read the horoscope pages. That's all you need to do. None of you I know ever did that. Who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, which is rampant in the United States today. From the top of the nation downward, from the White House downwards, witchcraft is rampant. Or who casts spells, or is a medium, or a spiritist, or consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. And because of these detestable practices, the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. Anyone who does any of those things is detestable. If you go to a fortune teller, that's detestable. God puts it in the same category with people who offer their infants and sacrifices to an evil God. You might say, well, what's wrong with the occult? I'll try to explain it this way. When you get involved in the occult, you're making friends with God's enemy. And God takes note of that. And you have to repent, and you have to cancel any involvement if you want help from God. So that's, and let me give you an example, a remarkable example that happened fairly recently. A woman, a very fine Christian woman, came to me with real grief. She said, we just had a letter from my son who's at college telling us that he's been homosexual from the womb. That he was born a homosexual. So I began to talk to her and I said, when you were pregnant with your son, did you do anything that's occult? Well, she said, yes, I tried to divine whether it was male or female, boy or girl. I had a pendulum suspended in front of my womb. And I knew if it went one way, it was a boy, went another way, it was a girl. I said to her, you exposed your unborn son to a demon by what you did. That's why he's homosexual from birth. Now she's a very solid Christian woman. She understood, she repented. And I believe in due course, her prayers will bring deliverance to her son. But let that be a warning to you. You cannot fool around with the occult in any form or shape. And if you want a further definition of the occult, it's in my book. I have another very common demon that enters unborn children is the demon of rejection. See, every little baby comes into the world craving one thing more than anything else, which is what? Love, that's right. But you see, the mother has got too many children. She hasn't got enough income. She discovers she's pregnant and she regrets it. She doesn't have to say anything. She just says, I wish I wasn't gonna have this baby. That baby is born with a spirit of rejection. Now this is true of my second wife, Ruth. She was born in the height of the Depression in 1930. She was the eighth child and her mother was already struggling to feed the seven previous children. And without saying anything, the mother resented having another mouth to feed. And Ruth had to be delivered from a spirit of rejection. Thank God we knew what to do and she was wonderfully delivered. But rejection is one of the commonest demons and it enters very frequently while a person is still in his mother's womb. Then there are pressures in early childhood. James chapter three in verse 16 says this. James 3, 16. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there. So in a strife-torn, disharmonious home, the children, born or unborn, are automatically exposed to demons. And most children do not have strong enough defenses to keep the demons out. So any child born in an unhappy, strife-torn, divided home is exposed to demons. How many such homes are there in the United States today? There are many, aren't there? See, parents are responsible to maintain an atmosphere in their homes in which the children can grow up free from demonic molestation. But very few parents in contemporary America are doing it. That's one reason why I wrote my book, Husbands and Fathers, because the number one failure in American culture is the husband and the father. And everything ultimately revolves around him. It's wonderful what wives and mothers can do, but no wife and mother is a substitute for the father. And the greatest single need of America today is men who are real fathers. Amen? Come on, you ladies, you say amen. That's right. I have been married to two wonderful women. I am not a woman hater. Never was and never will be. I admire women. In fact, I'm jealous for women. I want the best for them. I hate to see them prostituting themselves to the world. I have high standards for women. I know what a woman can be. Please don't misunderstand me. When I say we need fathers, I'm not saying we don't need mothers, but that we have more good mothers than we have good fathers today. I don't want to go into it because that's in the book. If you want it, you can get it there. But many, many children in contemporary America are exposed to demons in early childhood, and most of them do not have the spiritual defenses to keep them out. Then there's what I call emotional shock or continued emotional pressure. I remember a woman telling me once she needed to be delivered from the spirit of fear. I said, how did it enter? Well, she said, I was standing on the sidewalk and a terrible accident happened in front of me. And at that moment, I was seized with fear and I realized the demon of fear entered me. Now, let me give you a scripture about that. In 1 Peter chapter three and verse six, this is speaking about Christian women. As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. So to be a daughter of Sarah, you have to be not afraid with any terror. You have not to give way to sudden emotional shock. But if you do, it's very possible that a demon will enter. Then another way that they come, which is obviously sinful acts or habits. If you continually indulge in a sinful act, repeating it sooner or later, maybe sooner than later, the demon of that act will enter you. If you continually give way to sinful habits or foolish habits. I was praying in a church once and a woman came up to me and there were several other people around me. She said, whatever she said, I said, I think you have a demon of criticism. You want me to cast it out? She said, yes. I said, you demon of criticism, come out. Well, about three people all around started to get delivered at the same time. I said, no. Criticism is a sinful habit and can expose you to demons. Let me talk about one that nobody talks about in church. So because people don't talk about it in church, churchgoers have to go to a psychiatrist for help. But I'm talking about masturbation. Now, some people say masturbation is natural. It's not evil. I don't agree, but you're free to have your opinion. But what I do know is there are masses and masses of people who regularly masturbate and hate themselves for doing it. And they say, never again. And a little while later, they're doing the same thing again. Now, that is a demon. It's a demon of masturbation. And because I don't want to embarrass you later, I'll tell you how it will come out. It will come out of your hands and your fingers. And you feel this tingling in your fingers and your fingers will begin to go stiff and maybe bend backwards. I've seen this happen many times. A person will come up to his brother or friend and say, I don't understand what's happening to me. My fingers are tingling and they're bending back. I say, you have a demon of masturbation. Hate it, get rid of it. And I want to tell you, masturbation will not go out unless you hate it. You have to really hate it. And you might say, I'm a married man, happily married, thank God you are. But I have cast a demon of masturbation out of a man of 50 who was married. But he still was a slave to masturbation. And let me speak to you frankly for a moment. What happens when a married partner has masturbation demons, the satisfaction from the sexual act that the other person should get goes to the demon and not to the person. Can you understand what I'm saying? I hope you can. I'm trying to be frank. I'm trying to be frank without offensive. And then there's another very, very common way that demons enter, and that is through idle words. And I want to read to you what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 12 about idle words. Verse 36, but I say to you that every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. People often say, well, I didn't really mean it. That's exactly what Jesus says. That's an idle word. Any words you speak you don't really mean are idle. And whether you intend it or not, one day, unless you repent, you're going to give account for them in the day of judgment. Every idle word. People so often say to me, well, brother Prince, I didn't really mean it. I said, that's precisely what it is. It's an idle word. It's a word you didn't mean. And I cannot tell you how many people I've dealt with who have a spirit of death because they invited it in. They got depressed or discouraged and they said, well, I might as well be dead. What's the use of living? I'd be better off dead. That's all you have to say. The demon of death is right there in front of you. It will enter many times. I'm not saying always. So that's how they come in. I'm just going to repeat it. That's not everything. Number one, prenatal, an attitude in the mother that makes the baby feel unwelcome. Pressures in early childhood. Children that grow up in strife-torn homes are automatically exposed to demons. Emotional shock or sustained emotional pressure. Sinful acts or habits in idle words. Now that's not a comprehensive list, but it gives you some idea of the way that demons come in. Now I want to list characteristic activities of demons. You can take notes, but if you want to buy this book, they're all there. I'm not trying to sell the book. I'm just trying to save you the trouble of taking notes when you can get it printed. Number one, demons entice. They entice us to do evil. They entice us to sin. Take an example. You're walking along the street and somebody's drunk their billfold full of money. And a voice says to you, an inaudible voice says, pick it up. You might as well. If it was yours, they would do it. Why don't you? But anything that can speak is a person. And behind that inaudible voice is a person. And that person is enticing you to do evil. You may not follow it. You may resist. But nevertheless, that demon is there trying to get you to do something which will expose you to him. Then demons harass. And the example I always think of is this businessman who's had a terrible day in the office. The air conditioning failed. His secretary did the wrong thing. He had a client who was complaining and threatening to sue him. When he makes it through the day, he gets into his car to drive home and there's an accident on the freeway. And he sits there for one hour without air conditioning on the freeway, stewing. And I mean, he's getting hotter and hotter and hotter. He gets home and what happens? His wife is late with the supper. The kids are running around screaming. And as they say in America, he blows his stack. And at that moment, the demon of anger enters him. See, it's been following him around all day just waiting for that moment of weakness to come in. And after that, he's a different person. He still loves his wife and children dearly. And from time to time, something comes over him that causes him to do things that harm those he loves the most. And from time to time, when his wife looks into his eyes, she sees something that was never there before. What has happened? The demon of anger followed him all day and chose the weakest moment and the weakest place and jumped in. Demons defile, they're dirty. They're all called unclean. They make you feel unclean. They fill your mind with dirty, unclean attitudes, emotions, and thoughts. Particularly if you're planning to read your Bible or worship. Anything that attacks you at a moment like that is probably a demon. And you never feel really pure. You can sing about the blood of Jesus, how wonderful it is, but there's something in you that doesn't respond. Demons defile. Demons torture. Jesus says in Matthew 18, the one who will not forgive his brother or his sister, what's the sentence? Deliver him to what? To the torturers. That means you and me. If we don't forgive, if we retain bitterness and resentment and unforgiveness, the sentence of Jesus is deliver him to the torturers. Who are the torturers? Demons, very simple. They torture in many ways. They torture emotionally. They torture with fear, with guilt, with some kind of uneasy feeling that you haven't done the right thing, but you can never put your finger on it. They torture you physically. I've dealt with many people who've been delivered from a spirit of arthritis. To me, if you look at arthritis, that's demonic. It twists, it tortures, it incapacitates. Now, please understand, I am not saying that everybody has arthritis as a demon, but many do. I recall a scene in South Africa some years ago when Ruth and I were ministering together. We were praying for the sick, and a person, I think it was a woman, came up with arthritis. And I said to her, I want you to know I'm gonna deal with this as a demon. Is that okay? She said yes. Ruth and I prayed, cast the demon out, and she was delivered. But then I thought to myself, why go through this process with everybody individually? Because everybody's seen and heard it. So I said, I believe that you can be delivered from a spirit of arthritis without being individually praying for it. So anybody, and it was a large congregation, anybody who needs deliverance from arthritis, will you stand up? Well, about 30 people stood up and did the prayer. I played a spirit commanding the spirit of arthritis to lead them. Now, I said to the people, don't sit down until you know you've been delivered. And we went on ministering, but after about half an hour, every one of those people had sat down. Later on, Ruth and I traveled in various parts of South Africa. We met several people who'd been the ones that stood up and sat down, and they each testified they'd been healed. Now, please understand, I'm not saying all arthritis is demonic, but if you want to get a real picture of what demons are like, arthritis is a pretty good picture. They torment, they torture, they incapacitate, they bind, they are evil things. And again, there are exceptions, but it's surprising how many people who suffer from arthritis have some kind of bitterness or resentment or unforgiveness in their life. I need not say no more. Please don't get offended if you have arthritis. It doesn't mean you have a demon, but if you do have a demon, get rid of it. Then number five, demons compel. They make you do things you don't really want to do. I would say almost any act or habit that is compulsive is probably demonic, not necessarily. Demons also enslave. They make you slaves. Take the demon of alcohol. It enslaves you. You just cannot do without your glass of whiskey. You know it's harmful, you don't really enjoy it, so you can't help yourself. But people can be enslaved by other things. They can be enslaved by television, you know that. You can be an addict to television. Some television addicts walk into a room, the first thing they do, switch on the television. They don't know what programs are, they don't know what to watch, but they're just as compulsive as a person who reaches for a glass of whiskey and drinks it. Now, put compulsion and enslaving together, you get addiction. And our contemporary culture is full of addictions. And I would say 99.9% of them are demonic. Let me give you a scripture from 1 Corinthians chapter six. This is, for me, the biblical definition of addiction. Verse 12, all things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. I would prefer to say beneficial. So all things are lawful. I'm not on any law which says thou shalt not eat and thou shalt not do this and that. But not everything is beneficial. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Food for the stomach, and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. So overeating and sexual immorality are specifically mentioned by Paul as possible examples of addictions. And an addict is a slave. And I'm sorry to say the church is full of addicts. Not all of them are addicts, but there are many, many good Christians who are nevertheless slaves. Slaves of masturbation, slaves of idle talk, slaves of defiling habits. Slaves of wrong attitudes, slaves of wrong eating and drinking. I have come to see that my body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, and I'm responsible for how I treat that temple. I am not free to defile it. I'm not free to do anything that would make it less good than it should be. I am very careful about what I eat and what I drink. I'm not under any law, but I try to honor God's temple. How about you? Are you taking care of your temple? If it were a physical, material temple, you'd be very careful about it, wouldn't you? I mean, you'd keep it swept. You'd keep the windows clean. You wouldn't let dust accumulate. You wouldn't let the toilet get clogged. What about your physical temple? How well are you maintaining that? Let me say this, and it's just, I make no extra charge for it. I came to the United States in the 1960s, and I have myself, this is my personal, subjective impression, there have been three strong men, one after the other, over this nation that have sought to dominate it. The first was rebellion. In the 1960s, there was an upsurge of rebellion. When the Bible says rebellion, it's as the sin of witchcraft. Whenever people get into rebellion, they'll get into the occult. So the next demonic force was witchcraft. But in my personal, subjective judgment, those are in the past. They're still very active, but the number one strong man seeking to dominate the United States today is self-indulgence. And whereas both witchcraft and rebellion were regarded as wrong by the church, self-indulgence is practiced by the church. You can just keep loving me anyhow. But somebody said a little while ago to me, he said, if you want to know the best restaurant in the town, ask a preacher. And it's true. I mean, it is absolutely true. Preachers do know the best restaurant. Well, I'll go a little further. About 1990, I was diagnosed with a serious physical condition. And I prayed many times to God. I said, God, I don't understand. I believe in healing. I preach healing, but I'm not healed. I've seen many people healed. I'm not healed. Well, God didn't give me a definite answer, but he gave me a little overview of the way I had been living in previous years. And he never said a thing. He never made a comment. But he just showed me in various situations. And you know where most of them were? In restaurants. And I saw that I had been a slave to self-indulgence. In 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter one, verse seven, Paul says, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of self-discipline. That's the NIV translation. Everybody wants power. Everybody wants love. How many of you want self-discipline? You see, the Holy Spirit will not discipline you unless you discipline yourself. He won't take over and do the job for you. But if you make your mind up, he'll help you. Now, I mean, I have to be very careful when I say it because my tapes get everywhere. But I, how can I say this? I can't, because it'll give away the people I'm thinking. But I mourn over people very close to me who are slaves of their silence. Strange silence, isn't it? And they're destroying themselves. And they're defiling the temple and the Holy Spirit. Now, like somebody said, now he's left off preaching. He's meddling with other people's business. What about coffee? Coffee is a drug. I mean, everybody knows that. Now, I'm not saying you're an addict, but I'm saying do this. Just stop drinking coffee for 48 hours and see if you're addicted or not. You'll find out. If you come through, it's fine, all right. But if you cannot do without it, then you need to do it. Paul said, all things are lawful, but I will not be brought under the power of anything. And really, where it boils down to for modern America is eating and drinking. That's where we have to say, am I under the power of anything? And many, many good American Christians are slaves of their stomachs, to call it by the right name. And it's an addiction, and it's demonic. I'm not saying necessarily you need to be delivered from a demon, but check and see. And mind you, you won't be delivered if you want to keep on doing it. All right, the final thing that demons do is they make weak or sick. And almost every form of sickness can be demonic. I'm not saying it is, but it can be caused by a demon. As I've said, arthritis is a very conspicuous example. Migraine is another conspicuous example. Almost anything that's torturing is demonic, I would say. Torturing and enslaving. All right, now we come to the big question. Let me say something else about sickness. You know, I do sometimes pray for people, check their legs. How many of you have seen me do that? Anybody here? Okay, and very often, when I hold a person's leg, and it grows out, the person will start to contort and twist and behave in a very strange way. And I've learned that it's a spirit of crippling. I've seen many people delivered from a crippling spirit, something that twists, it forms, enslaves. In fact, I think I was on the way to being, having that problem myself, if I hadn't met a good chiropractor. I'm willing to take help from anybody that can help me. And I thank God for chiropractors. I thank God for doctors. I'm not against doctors. But the best one of all, his name is Jesus. That's right. Now we're coming to the practical questions. And I'm going to turn to my own book. Why should I write it all out when it's all there? Page 204 and five, here you are. They Shall Expel Demons. Written out of personal experience, not out of theory, and based entirely on scripture. And here are the steps for receiving deliverance, which I'm going to offer you the possibility to go through briefly. Step number one, personally affirm your faith in Christ. The scripture says, Christ is the high priest of our confession. It's our confession that releases his high priestly ministry. We make no confession, he cannot serve as our high priest. He is the high priest of our confession. When we say the same about ourselves as God says in his word, we release the high priestly ministry of Jesus on our behalf. Step number two, humble yourself. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And I have not found anywhere in the Bible where God says he will humble us. Always God says you do it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt you in due time. Humility is a decision. And in this ministry of deliverance, you may well have to make the decision between your dignity and your deliverance. And if your dignity is more important to you, you probably won't get delivered. People who are getting delivered are sometimes very undignified. But my advice to you is let dignity go and receive deliverance. Because after you've received deliverance, dignity will come back. I want to point out to you something very, very beautiful out of the scripture. There was one person whom God gave a unique honor, never given to any other person. That was to be the first human witness of the resurrection of Jesus. And you know who she was? Mary Magdalene. And you know what it says about her? In Mark 16, I want you to notice this. Mark 16, verse nine. Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons. It all goes in the same passage. So she was not inferior because she'd been delivered from seven demons. In fact, she's the only person who saw Jesus alive before he ascended to the Father. Jesus had such compassion on her broken heart that he wouldn't even go to the Father until he'd revealed himself to her. To me, that's one of the most marvelous illustrations of the compassion of Jesus. He left his apostles, they could wait. There was one woman, so broken-hearted, so much in love with him, that he couldn't even leave earth till he'd revealed himself to her. Who was it? Mary Magdalene. What was her testimony? He delivered me out of seven demons. Brothers and sisters, don't be ashamed if you should need deliverance. You could be ashamed if you let pride keep you from receiving deliverance. All right, going back to the book, the book. Number one was personally affirm your faith in Christ. Number two, humble yourself. Number three, confess any known sin. Don't search for sin, but if the Holy Spirit shows you an unconfessed sin, confess it. I think you will find this is true. God has never committed himself to forgive sins that we are not willing to confess. So if you want forgiveness, you have to be prepared to confess. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, but only if we confess our sins. Now, you're not confessing in order to tell something God he doesn't know, because God knows all about your sins long before you confess them. What you're doing is bringing something dark out into the light, because as I understand it, the blood of Jesus does not cleanse in the dark. You have to bring it to the light, with all its embarrassment, but when you bring it to the light, the blood is applied, and you are cleansed, whiter than snow. It's worth it. And listen, we're not talking about confessing our sins to me or to the pastor, just confessing your sins to the Lord. And after all, you're not going to be telling him anything he doesn't already know, because he knows all about it, but he still loves you. But it's his condition that you bring it out into the open. Repent of all sins. It's not enough to confess, you have to repent. The Bible says in Proverbs, he who covers his sins will not prosper. If you keep it covered, you will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes his sin will have mercy. So you have to confess, and then you have to forsake. You may have to throw it away. Whatever it is, you may have to throw it away. It may be expensive, but you may have to throw it away. Repent of all sins that I did, my dearness. Forgive all other people. Now this is absolutely essential. If you don't forgive, God will not forgive you. That's the only comment Jesus made at the end of teaching the Lord's Prayer. If you forgive sins, God will forgive you. If you do not forgive, God will not forgive you. You have to make up your mind. And let me say, forgiveness is not an emotion. It's a decision. You carry in your hand IOUs from somebody to you, maybe for, who knows, $10,000. But God, in his hand, has IOUs from you to him, but for a thousand, $100,000. God says, let's make a deal. You tear up your IOUs, and I'll tear up mine. But if you don't tear yours up, I'll hold on to mine. I was teaching this years ago in Florida. The end of the session, a very smartly dressed young woman of about 30 walked right up the aisle to me, stood right in front of me, said, Mr. Prince, I just want to tell you, I've got rid of about $30,000 worth of IOUs, turned around and walked out. She got the message. I didn't have to consult her or counsel her. She had got the message. So you may have to tear up some IOUs. I've discovered that the two commonest causes why people are not delivered is number one, unforgiveness, and number two, failure to repent. So you have to do it. Then you have to break with the occult and all false religion. That's essential. And you may have to get rid of occult objects that are in your house. Because God told Moses, if you bring them into your house, any accursed object, you will become accursed like the thing. Some of you got things in your house that bring a curse on you objects related to the occult, objects of superstition. Get rid of them, have a house clean. Let me tell you my own experience. My grandfather was the officer in the British Army who suppressed what was called the Boxer Rebellion in China. You may not know about it, but there was an uprising of the Chinese nationalists around about 1900 and something. And the British sent out an expeditionary force under the command of my grandfather that suppressed it. I'm not saying it should have been suppressed, but that's what they did. Well, my grandfather returned with some rather costly Chinese antiques. And in due course, they were passed through my mother to me. And amongst them were four beautiful embroidered Chinese dragons. I mean, they were beautiful. And furthermore, they had five claws. And the dragon with five claws is an imperial dragon. So I had them framed and put up on the wall in my living room. But when I began to deal with deliverance, the Lord had an interview with me. He said, now, tell me, in the Bible, who is represented by a dragon? Well, I didn't have to be a theologian to answer that. I said the devil. He said, do you think it's appropriate that you as a preacher would have on the walls of your living room something that demonstrates or advertises or portrays the devil? I got the message, so I got rid of them. And I want to tell you this. I didn't change what I was doing. My ministry was exactly the same. I was a traveling Bible teacher. But in the next year, my income doubled. That is speaking a language you can understand. You understand that? It wouldn't have doubled if I hadn't taken away the hindrance, the barrier to God's blessing. So get rid of anything occult. Let me say one of the most dangerous and subtle forms of the occult is Freemasonry. If you have any relative or you yourself have in any way been involved in Freemasonry, break it off totally, absolutely. Terminate it, get it out of the house. Don't maintain any connection with it. Some of the most terrible cases of demonization I've seen have been associated with Freemasonry. So where are we? Oh, I'm reading from the book, that's right. We've nearly come to the end. We're on the point of going into action. Forgive all other people. Break with the occult and all false religion. And God warned Moses that if you bring any of those satanic objects into your home, you become a curse like them. Prepare to be released from every curse over your life. We're going to deal with that without going into it. Jesus was made a curse on the cross. That was the last thing that happened to him, that we might be redeemed from every curse and enter into the blessing of Abraham, whom God blessed in all things. There is another book that I have out there called Blessing or Curse, you can choose. I think it's the most, let me say this, the most unique revelation God has given me. Other people speak about casting out demons. I don't know of any other book that deals systematically or thoroughly with the issue of curses. Many, many people in America and Britain and Europe today don't believe in curses, they think they're superstitious. Believe me, if you go to Africa or Asia, they know curses are real. They're just as real here, but they're dressed up in nice pretty clothes. So you can be released from a curse, why? Because on the cross, Jesus was made a curse. That's the only basis of release. Take your stand with God, come out on God's side. Say, God, I'm your child, I'm your servant. I want to serve you, I want to live for you. I hate anything that comes between you and me. I don't want it, I'm for you. And number nine, you haven't followed the numbers, but number nine, expel. Now this is very, very important. That's why I titled my book, They Should Expel Demons. Because expel, it's not a religious word. I was looking for some word that wasn't religious. It's in a certain translation of the New Testament. So what is expel? You've got something inside you that you don't want. What do you do? You expel it, you breathe it out, you blow it out, you sob it out, you cough it out, you scream it out, but you get it out. You don't keep it inside you. Now I saw this marvelous illustration somewhere near Washington, D.C. many years ago. A mother brought to me a four-year-old son. She said, will you pray for him? I said, what's his problem? She said, allergens. I said, what kind of allergens? She said, food allergens. I said, what's he allergic to? She said, tell me what he isn't allergic to. Well, I said, I'm going to deal with this as an evil spirit. Are you prepared? She said, yes. So then I sat the little boy down and I talked to him in very simple language. I said, there's a bad spirit, a breath inside you that keeps you from eating the things you really like. I'm going to command that spirit to come out in the name of Jesus. I want you to blow it out. When he was like a little soldier and everything was just military, I went through it all. I said, now come out, you spirit. And I said, blow it out. And he blew out four times. No emotion, nothing. Well, I didn't know what had happened. So I said, well, that's the best I can do. So off he went with his mother. About three days later, their mother was back. She said, pray for me. I said, what are your problems? She said, allergies. I said, first of all, tell me what happened to your son. Well, she said, he marched back home with me, marched up to the refrigerator, took out everything he enjoyed, ate it all, and nothing did him any harm. You see, this is so simple that religious people can't always do it, but expect it. I had a letter once from a woman years ago. She said, Brother Prince, never hesitate to tell people to breathe it out. She said, my husband went to one of your meetings, went up to the front, prayed like you told him, blew out four times, and that's all that happened. But she said, he's been a different man ever since. This is very real, see, it's not up there. It's right down here on the surface of Earth. So we've come to the point where you need to diagnose, or you need to let God diagnose. Do you have any need to be delivered from something demonic? If so, you'll never have a better opportunity than you have right now. Just take it easy, we're not in a hurry. We're relaxed. God is on our side. He's fighting for us. I'm going to lead you, if you want, in a prayer by which you can claim deliverance. I'm not gonna pray it for you. I'm gonna tell you what to pray. And it's up to you whether you pray it. We're not in a hurry. If you went to the doctor or the dentist, you might spend an hour in his waiting room before you even got to see him. So we are not gonna rush this thing. We're gonna take it slowly. We're going to take it very calmly, humbly, shriek. That's her problem, not yours. And I'll tell you what usually happens in deliverance. Some women will start to scream and go on and on screaming. And it disturbs other people. My diagnosis is there's a demon coming out that's got stuck in the narrow passages of her throat. So I go up to her or send somebody and say, now just give a good hard cough and it'll come out. And it comes out and she stops screaming. See, we're dealing with realities. We're not dealing with religious fancies. We're dealing with something very real. So on my pages 216 and 217, I have the prayer for deliverance. And we're gonna go through it. If you want to, if you don't want to, we'll close the meeting. So I want you to consider for a few moments what I've been saying. Open your heart and mind to the Lord. I need to get rid of it because I want it out. And then if you want to pray, I want you to do one thing. Could you give me a little water? I'm getting a little dry. Thank you very much. Can you hold that for me? Thank you so much. Now if you'll let me blow my nose. Even preachers have to blow their nose, you know. Now, I'm going to offer to say for you, or rather to put in your mouth, a prayer that you can pray to the Lord seeking deliverance. It will cover every, as I say in America, I don't understand it, I never played. What do you play? What's the game? Baseball, yes. We call it rounders. It's a game for girls in Britain. All right. Anyhow, I do know some of the phrases. I'm going to do my best to cover all the bases. You understand that? When you've done that, you can be delivered. So up to you, entirely your decision, no pressure. But if you want to pray this prayer and receive deliverance, I want you to stand up wherever you are and I'll lead you in prayer. All right, now I'm just reading out of my book. You're going to affirm your faith in Christ. He's the high priest of your confession. So will you say these words after me? Lord Jesus Christ, I believe you are the Son of God. And the only way to God, that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again that I might be forgiven and receive eternal life. Now we're going to deal with humbling ourselves. I renounce all pride and religious self-righteousness and any dignity that does not come from you. I have no claim on your mercy except that you died in my place. Now we come to confessing sin. I confess all my sins before you and hold nothing back, especially I confess and now quietly name any particular sins of which the Holy Spirit has convicted you. Now we're going to continue with repentance. Repentance, I repent of all my sins. I turn away from them and I turn to you, Lord, for mercy and forgiveness. Now we're going to deal with forgiving other people. By a decision of my will, I freely forgive all who have ever harmed me or wronged me. I lay down all bitterness, all resentment and all hatred. Specifically, I forgive and now you put in under your breath the name of somebody you really need to forgive. And Don Basham, whom I ministered with often, used to say, the longer you make this list, the better prospect you have of deliverance. Specifically, I forgive. And it's not difficult to forgive people far from you. The man who delivers the mail, no problem, but the person who shares your bed, that's not so easy. Or your parent, or your child, or your pastor. All right, we're going on dealing with the occult. I sever all contact I've ever had with the occult or with all false religion, particularly, now you need to name the things. And if you have been in Freemasonry or family, specifically name Freemasonry. We're going on. I commit myself to get rid of all objects associated with the occult or false religion. Associated with the occult or false religion. Now we're going to deal with any curses that may be over your life. Lord Jesus, I thank you. Lord Jesus, I thank you. That on the cross you will remit a curse. That on the cross you will remit a curse. That I might be redeemed from every curse. That I might be redeemed from every curse. And inherit God's blessing. And inherit God's blessing. On that basis. On that basis. I ask you to release me. I ask you to release me. And set me free. And set me free. To receive the deliverance I need. To receive the deliverance I need. Now. Sorry about that, you don't have to follow that, anyhow. We're coming now to the vital point. I take my stand with you, Lord. I take my stand with you, Lord. Against all Satan's demons. Against all Satan's demons. I submit to you, Lord. I submit to you, Lord. And I resist the devil. And I resist the devil. Amen. Amen. Now we come to the point where you expel. Now I speak to any demons that have control over me. Now I speak to any demons that have control over me. Now you speak to them directly. I command you to go from me now. I command you to go from me now. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. I expel you. I expel you. Come out in the name of Jesus. Let them go. Every evil spirit that's in these people. I command you to go from them now.